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Comet McNaught Visible in Broad Daylight
AbsoluteXyro writes "As the amateur astronomers among us already know, Comet McNaught has been gracing the early morning and late evening skies... as it approaches the Sun, some estimate it has the potential to become 40 times brighter than Venus, or a magnitude of -8.8! In fact, it has recently been reported at SpaceWeather.com that Comet McNaught is now visible in broad daylight! From the article: "It's fantastic," reports Wayne Winch of Bishop, California. "I put the sun behind a neighbor's house to block the glare and the comet popped right into view. You can even see the tail.""
seriously, how long will it be in that general area of the sky at that time? DC's got rain and clouds for at least the next 2 days...
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
"I put the sun behind a neighbor's house to block the glare and the comet popped right into view. You can even see the tail."
He moved the sun. Impressive.
Lindsay Blanton
RadioReference.com
This may sound obvious, but DO NOT use binoculars during the day to look at objects near the sun. One slip and you get instant, permanent, crippling eye damage.
The linked stories do talk about binoculars, but they were written for looking at the comet after sunset.
Impressive? Not necessarily. It depends on which sun he's talking about. They range from 0.37kg to 1122kg.
I was able to take a pretty crappy shot of her yesterday at dusk. Unfortunately I didn't hear about that comet until it was too low on the horizon to get anything decent...or to get my hands on a decent zoom lense.
I bet his neighbor was upset.
DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
http://skytonight.com/observing/highlights/5133461 .html
"If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, January 12th is your last good opportunity to catch Comet McNaught in the evening twilight -- though January 13th isn't completely out of the question. After that, Comet McNaught will become a target for observers in the Southern Hemisphere, as shown below."
Today is January 14th.
I think you won't see much more of it anymore, until it emerges from behind the sun.
In the Southern Hemisphere it will be visible in the following week or so. It is raining right now here in the Kingdom of the Zulu, and the weather service expects the rain to persist for the whole of next week. We don't complain about rain here in Africa (except when there are floods of course) but this is inconvenient.
I was seven years old in 1986, and I was really excited to see Halley's comet. The night that the comet was expected to be visible, I asked my mother to wake me up so that I can see it. The next morning, I asked her why she didn't wake me. She explained that I had been sleeping so peacefully, and that she didn't want to disturb me. I was bitterly upset. Oh well, 76 years isn't that long to wait.
I don't want to go outside.
Latewire
Every few years, it seems, we've had another comet that was supposed to be "best comet of the century!!!", and all my life, they've been fizzling. A couple have been OK, but there's been a dearth of really bright, visible comets since before I was born.
This sucker, I wish someone would have hyped the hell out of. IT IS THAT BRIGHT. The problem is, hardly anyone (including Slashdot) was reporting on it until it was damn near gone. There were about 2-4 nights where it was incredibly bright, brighter than Venus, and visible just at sunset for about half an hour or so. VERY close to the horizon but for the first time in my life, light pollution meant nothing. I was able to see this thing while driving around, so long as I had a clear view of the horizon to the west. Most comets you have to hunt for, use binoculars, maps, you name it. This thing had a very long tail, just sitting there in plain view.
It's been the best comet of the past 3 decades at least. Unfortunately the vast majority of the planet missed out, as these reports have all come after the fact. Plus, it's now barely visible for those in the northern hemisphere.
I'm gonna try this daytime trick out, because if it's like the sunset viewing conditions, it will be 10x as cool as is described here.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
I can confirm this: I just saw the comet at 10:30 a.m. local time Sunday morning! Incredible. In all my years as an astronomer I have never seen anything like this. Using my binoculars I could easily spot it 5 degrees from the Sun. I'm trying to get video now, but it's so close it will be difficult. I made a videoblog about this the other day. I'll have to update it now!
*** Phil Plait, aka The Bad Astronomer http://www.badastronomy.com
we've had a week straight of cloud cover. Lights in the sky would only make the local bible-thumpers nervous anyway (Kansas).
I don't know if you are joking, but it isn't going to hit the sun. It orbits the sun. From our point of view on earth, it will disappear behind the sun, then re-appear on the other side of the sun.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.